UN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OFFICIAL EXPRESSES FEARS FOR BAHA’IS IN IRAN

UNITED NATIONS, 20 March 2006 (BWNS) — Representatives of the Baha’i International Community reacted with alarm today to a United Nations official’s statement about actions of the Iranian government against the Baha’is in Iran.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, stated that she was highly concerned and expressed her apprehensions in a press release posted today about “a confidential letter sent on 29 October 2005 by the Chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces in Iran to a number of governmental agencies.”

“The letter,” she said, “which is addressed to the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard and the Police Force, states that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had instructed the Command Headquarters to identify persons who adhere to the Baha’i faith and monitor their activities. The letter goes on to request the recipients to, in a highly confidential manner, collect any and all information about members of the Baha’i faith.”

“We are grateful that Ms. Jahangir has brought this activity to light,” said Bani Dugal, the Baha’i International Community’s principal representative to the UN. “We share her concern for the welfare of the Baha’is and shudder to think what this might mean. Because of the unprecedented character of the government’s action, we are addressing a request to the Ambassador of Iran for an explanation.”

Ms. Jahangir also “considers that such monitoring constitutes an impermissible and unacceptable interference with the rights of members of religious minorities.”

“The Special Rapporteur’s concern that such information could be ‘used as a basis for the increased persecution of, and discrimination against, members of the Baha’i faith’ is clearly well-founded,” said Ms. Dugal.

Such actions come in the wake of mounting media attacks on the Baha’is, the nature of which in the past have preceded government-led assaults on the Baha’is in Iran. “Kayhan,” the official Tehran daily newspaper has carried more than 30 articles about the Baha’is and their religion in recent weeks, all defamatory in ways that are meant to create provocation. Radio and television programs have joined in as well with broadcasts condemning the Baha’is and their beliefs. In addition, the rise in influence in Iranian governmental circles of the Anti-Baha’i Society, Hojjatieh, an organization committed to the destruction of the Baha’i Faith, can only heighten the fears for that beleaguered community.

“We well know what hateful propaganda can lead to; recent history offers too many examples of its horrific consequences. We make an urgent appeal to all nations and peoples on behalf of our Iranian coreligionists that they not allow a peace-loving, law-abiding people to face the extremes to which blind hate can lead,” said Ms. Dugal. “The ghastly deeds that grew out of similar circumstances in the past should not now be allowed to happen. Not again.”